Sela was the capital of Edom, situated in the great valley extending from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. It was near Mount Hor, close by the desert of Zin. It is called "the rock". When Amaziah took it he called it Joktheel or Kathoel in the Septuagint. It is mentioned by the prophets as doomed to destruction.
Sela is identified with the ruins of Sela, east of Tafileh in Jordan and near Bozrah, all Edomite cities in the mountains of Edom.
Sela appears in later history and in the Vulgate under the name of Petra. "The caravan of all ages, from the interior of Arabia and from the Persian Gulf, from Hadhramaut on the ocean, and even from Sabea or Yemen, appear to have pointed to Petra as a common centre; and from Petra the tide seems again to have branched out in every direction, to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, through Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem, and Damascus, and by other routes, terminating at the Mediterranean Sea."